Dragonstime: Across Time and Two Worlds
by Thais of the Star
Summary: Tristan and Silverrider Jess are thrown back to Earth with six other Weyrlings. Begining the ultimate story of the lost on a homeward bound journey the eight forge bonds of fellowship that reach across millenium. Dragonstime series, 2.
1. Dragonbattle

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter One: _Dragonbattle_

Tristan looked down at the mottled eggs, twenty-three in all, including the golden egg. Gold, like the queen who hovered above the clutch. Twenty-three more dragons. Thyrath, the mother dragon, gently nosed the precious golden egg, shell hard from the heat of he Hatching Ground sands. Her rider, Nairyry, placed a hand on the golden egg and spoke reassuringly in a voice too soft for Tristan to catch to her dragon.

Twenty-three dragons due to hatch tomorrow or maybe the next day. And it wasn't just any Hatching, though all were special and unique. This might very well be _his_ Impression day, the day _he_ bonded to a dragon hatchling. He turned away from the clutch smiling and jumped. Jessica, also formerly of Earth, grinned.

"Boo."

Tristan stuck his tongue out at her and she grinned wider.

"Any time soon now." As if he didn't already know and was counting the minutes. Jess took a quick glance at the eggs, lingering for a moment on the queen egg. Golden Thyrath looked over at them, then past them with a contented rumble. They looked back.

Nairyry, Thyrath's rider, smiled at them as she came up the stairs to the stands. Nais Weyr was the first and only Weyr in the Southern Continent to be situated as the northern ones were in old volcanic craters. Their mountain home was near landing, the one closest to the sea. In fact it was only a short walk to the beach, without a forest trek.

Jess smiled slightly. Some things never changed. The Goldrider still wore the blue high-top converse and sunglasses Jess had bought for her during her brief stay on earth some weeks before. She was not wearing the black trench coat at least, instead regular Pern-style loose pants, the better for dragonriding, but with an airy, light blue skirt over the dark blue of the pants. Over she wore a cropped-sleeve, loose pale violet shirt, and heeled black boots, the better for the hot Hatching Ground sands.

She began without preamble. "The rest of the candidates are going to be allowed in tomorrow, just before they're due to shell, but Thyrath wants you to be the first to touch the eggs."

"Really?" The pair could not disguise how eager they were to actually place their hands on the eggs. That was a wished-for honor every young person on Pern, Candidate or no, secretly harbored.

"Go in right now; they don't bite- in the shell. And out of it only food." The queenrider shooed the unresisting teenagers onto the hot sands. They grimaced at the temperature, then tried to ignore it. Jess could see a shell that was grayer, and mottled with black. As always when seeing it on her VIP visits to this room, she frowned in puzzlement. She went over and knelt by the egg. It was not small compared to the others, rather nearly as large as the queen egg.

Tristan was scrubbing his hands on his jeans in preparation to touch the nearest egg to the entrance, one of the larger ones, while Nairyry looked on in some veiled amusement. Thyrath rumbled and he spun, wondering if he had done anything wrong, but she was looking at Jess. She was just laying both palms flat on the surface of the large gray and black egg.

"It probably won't hatch." The three turned around. W'lam, rider of bronze Jurcath, the dragon who had flown Thyrath, stood at the entrance.

"It will." Jess didn't say anything else.

"Look at it," argued Tristan. "It's not the same color as the others, like it's diseased. The gold egg is over there, you know." He pointed to the obviously gold egg.

"She'll hatch. You'll see." She got up and left the Hatching Sands.

"How d'ya like that?" Tristan frowned at the retreating girl, addressing the comment to W'lam. "You said yourself it prob'ly won't! And she didn't even touch the queen egg." He stood up from his examination of his egg and turned to another, trailing a final hand over the last one. He felt a faint thrum beneath his fingers.

'And why did she call the egg a _she_? Except for queens, there's no _way_ to tell what gender it is in the egg. Is there?'

000

Jess had felt something in that egg. Some_one_. Like when the dragons chose to let her speak with them, but fainter, farther away.

She stopped at the other end of the tunnel and looked out on the beach. Just for a moment she closed her eyes and leaned against the side of the tunnel, feeling the roughness under her hands.

Then she straightened up and continued down the beach aimlessly. After a time she turned towards the water and, holding her shoes in one hand stood and let a wave engulf her feet. She stared across the water, so much greener than that of earth.

Jess didn't do anything for such a long time that the incoming tide swelled up nearly to her knees. When the sun made a scarlet and yellow appearance from behind a cloud she blinked at last and took a few steps away from the pounding waves. Then she sat back on the sand and watched the sun sink towards the horizon.

She had never once hesitated in the knowledge that she should stay on Pern, but she couldn't help wondering what was happening there, on Earth. A sudden grin sprang to her face as she remembered the awe in peoples' faces after Thyrath with her, Nairyry and Tristan on her back had swooped and caught a window washer as he fell off his building while watching her fly off the Empire State Building.

Vaguely she wondered if they had cleaned up the mess yet. But that was not the right thing to think, she corrected herself with a frown. She was now millennia from that year. She rephrased it with a little difficulty.

If the same amount of time had taken place in the two separate _whens_, would they have gotten all the damage caused by the dragon and her three riders cleaned up yet? Yes, that was more accurate… sort of.

With a sigh she got up and turned back to the Weyr. The light from the sun was nearly gone.

000

Tristan had looked everywhere for Jess he could think of. He was just about to give up and ask if Thyrath could locate her when she herself came up from the beach.

"Hey! There you are!" She looked up startled. Tristan jogged over to her. "Where'd you go? I looked _everywhere_."

"Oh… down the beach." She turned and continued walking back towards the small room she occupied presently.

Tristan stared after her, wondering what she was thinking to seem so melancholy and distant.

Back in the room Jessica sat on the bed, legs crossed, and stared into the distance. A sudden mental cry from a dragon brought her to her feet in an instant.

Within a second she was out the door. Outside she spotted Tristan running as frantically as she.

They could hear the sounds now that they were on the alert. Tristan skidded to a halt in the sand and listened at the tunnel entrance. Voices, frantic, and then a cry from a dragon, then something smashing. Sounds of a great battle followed. Jessica and Tristan closed their eyes and stood in the doorway, calling out like thunder in their minds, calling the dragons.

They dodged aside just in time as a feline came tearing out of the cavern entrance, holding in its jaws the body of a green dragonet.

Without a second thought they ran for all they were worth into the fray, with the roars of every dragon and every fire lizard, tame and wild within range behind them.

000

They burst out on a scene of battle. Thyrath was defending her eggs, especially the golden egg, as best she could, but felines were everywhere and only so many dragons could fit aloft and on the sands. They fought for their eggs and slaughtered the great cats left and right. Then one creature leapt and the brown dragon who was its target bellowed even above the din and disappeared _between_ for the last time.

Two humans looked on helplessly. They could do nothing; if they were not killed by the enemy the defenders would crush them accidentally.

They could only watch as dragons fought, fire lizards darting here and there between them.

Then the battle was over, the last of the felines slain by Thyrath who flung the carcass against the wall with a savage growl. In the last moment of silence the humans who had gathered behind Jess and Tristan held their breaths, knowing the keening that must follow the deaths of a bronze dragon, a green and a brown.

As the dragons raised their heads, tears streamed down the faces of nearly every human there. Thyrath began it, and every dragon and fire lizard took up the lamentation for not only the adult dragons, but the eight eggs that had been crushed.


	2. Silver

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Two: _Silver_

Jess lifted the body of a fire lizard from the sand. The little blue had been crushed beneath a feline's paw in the process of the fight. She was about to straighten when the egg next to the blue caught her attention. It was the mottled gray egg. Jess hesitantly reached out with her free hand, the other holding the blue, and stroked the shell.

Something tapped against her palm. Thyrath sat up and began to thrum. Jess got an idea.

"You've got to tell Jurcath, tell W'lam to tell the people who ditched the felines to begin skinning them quick! The hatchlings can eat those who killed their siblings for their first meal."

She sprinted out of the Hatching Grounds and gently placed the lizard with the other fallen of his kind. "Thank you," she whispered to them, then ran back to her room to don the white outfit of the candidates.

000

Tristan was about to help fling the dead feline away from the when he heard Thyrath speaking to him, passing on a message. Jess wanted them skinned so they would be food for the hatchlings. He swiftly passed on the message to the woman who was helping him tow the heavy feline and she nodded.

"You'd best change clothes in a hurry. Wouldn't be late to Impress you own dragon!" He paled and raced away, grinning more idiotically than he would have admitted.

000

Jess and Tristan arrived out of breath just as the fifteen eggs began to rock. Dragons were setting down candidates and spectators in the appropriate positions. They looked at each other and smiled weakly.

"See you on the other side, I guess," whispered Tristan, then went to stand with the other boys, and some girls, near the fifteen remaining eggs. Jess was about to go towards the golden egg, when she realized the boys and girls were ringing all but the little gray egg. Jess felt something calling her. She shook her head when Nairyry caught her eye and pointed at the gold.

Without any more hesitation she knelt before the gray and black egg and placed her hands on it. She shut everything out of her mind but the strange egg. Nothing else mattered. The egg shuddered, rocking back and forth. A large split occurred, and a chunk fell away.

More pieces dropped, some large, some small, until a dragon suddenly freed herself and stood to look Jessica directly in the eyes.

000

Tristan looked at the eggs, trying to decide which egg would crack to reveal which color dragonet. Suddenly an egg split and the clumsy brown looked around, trying to find the right boy. He held his breath as the little creature stared at him-

And looked away again. He chose Impression with the boy to Tristan's left.

More dragons cracked their shells and paired off. There were four eggs left, not including the queen or little gray one, and about a dozen boys besides Tristan.

An egg split suddenly, and two others more slowly. The blue found his partner, then the bronze and the green. One egg left. Tristan watched as the egg hatched. The bronze dragonet stumbled just before Tristan and he helped him steadily to his feet. As he met that whirling gaze, Tristan felt connected to _Kurith_ –_his_ Kurith, _his_ wonderful bronze Kurith– more than to anything that had ever crossed his path before.

000

When Jess and her Vailath stepped into the center of the Hatching Grounds to greet Tristan and Kurith silence fell slowly. All knew or knew _of_ Ruth the white dragon, a runt who had not been expected to survive but who had played the crucial roll in the elimination of Thread, and the knowledge of Ruth kept them from the uproar it could have been.

Jess smiled down at her new life-long friend. "Tristan, this is Vailath." The little silver dragon looked up at the new bronzerider with black eyes.

000

Tristan and Jess were too occupied with their dragon duties to do much more than say hello in passing for several weeks after the hatching of the fifteen of the clutch. There were five greens, three browns, three total bronzes and two blues besides the queen and the silver dragon.

Vailath and her rider shared the barracks that the female greenriders and qoldrider stayed in. Whenever the silver dragon looked at a person they found that her eyes seemed to gaze far deeper than they would have liked. They were instructed with the regular Weyrlings, and the Weyrlingmaster, a brownrider named S'kooen, often came by to check on the silver dragon.

Mostly Jess and Vailath lead the normal lives of dragon and rider, a seemingly endless circle of chores: feeding, bathing, oiling sleeping, and lessons from the Weyrlingmaster. It soon became apparent to Jess, and then others, that the silver dragon was different in other ways from the other dragonets.

Several sevendays after the Impression went by before it was noticed strongly. Vailath was swimming in the ocean while Jess dressed on shore from her own bath, and then called her dragon in. Vailath rolled over and sent waves swamping up the beach. She waved out of the water and spread her wings above her, casting shadows over the other dragonriders who were also swimming nearby.

Suddenly she hissed, glaring at a spot in the forest. Jess looked, frowning, but couldn't see anything wrong. _There's nothing there, silly._

The young dragon continued to stare at the bushes. "What's the mater with _her_?" asked the goldrider haughtily. She sniffed and turned away. Suddenly from out of the bushes burst an enormous feline. The huge tan creature dove straight at the girl but Vailath came between them, wings half-spread, crouching, neck arched, teeth bared.

Vailath glared at the cat as it stopped in its tracks, cringing. A growl started deep in her chest as she merely stared at the feline. The vicious creature backed away one step, then another, then broke and ran.

The silver dragonet turned aside as if nothing had happened and reshuffled her wings. Jess watched her friend in awe as she settled to the sand and closed those great obsidian eyes.

True, felines were terrified of dragons, but if they _really_ wanted to attack there wasn't much that could turn them aside. Apparently they had just found another.

000

The tale was repeated many times by the other riders who had witnessed the events, and told until most of Pern, Northern as well as Southern, knew of it. By the time word of the adventure reached the ears of Masterharper Sebell, the story had grown until it was told that the dragonet had suddenly fallen from the sky and glared at the tribe of felines to protect her rider. Her eyes had burned them out of existence.

Knowing full well how much the tale must have been expanded in its travels, the Masterharper determined to see this remarkable starlight dragon with black eyes, and sent his gold fire lizard Kimi to N'ton at Fort Weyr, requesting conveyance to see the silver dragon and her rider. He had neglected to speak to either Nairyry, the queenrider who had gone to Earth of the past, as his sources told him, or the two she had brought back from then.

It was time to remedy that situation, he knew.


	3. Friends

_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Three: _Friends_

Jess lay back against her dragon's shoulder, too warm and comfortable to move. She failed to notice Vailath peering closely at two visitors, a man and a woman. Only when the man coughed did she start and leap to her feet.

"Hello," she said uncertainly. The woman stepped forward, a gold fire lizard clinging to her shoulder and hair. As she spoke a second gold lizard spiraled down with a trill to alight on the man's arm.

"You are Jessica? Rider of the silver dragon?"

Jess nodded. "This is Vailath, Lady- um…"

"Menolly, without the titles please, Dragonrider." The singer bowed to the dragon. "And good day to you as well, Vailath. This is Masterharper Sebell." The man stepped forward and made his duties to the dragon.

"Masterharper?" Jess's voice squeaked like a fire lizard's. "You're the Masterharper?"

"Sebell, if you please. And you are the young lady I have been told has come from another world and another time."

Jess inhaled sharply. No one was supposed to know where she and Tristan came from! She stepped back to the comfort of being close to her dragon, unsure what it meant.

"They do not intend harm, Jess." She looked past the two and saw that Nairyry was coming down the beach, no doubt following their tracks.

"They shouldn't know where we came from. No one should." Her voice was flat and mistrustful. Vailath lowered her head to look Menolly in the eye.

_They are all right. They will not tell._

"They still shouldn't know," the girl told her dragon sharply.

_It is all right._

"They already know," said Nairyry. "Menolly and out good Masterharper wanted to meet you in person. And Vailath of course."

Vailath rumbled and blinked her great obsidian eyes. _They are good. They will be good for you to talk to._

"Fine thing when your own dragon starts telling you who to talk to," grumbled Jess, but she smiled at her silver friend. "I'll get Tristan down here." Without being asked, Vailath concentrated on Kurith.

_Jess asks, can you and Tristan come down here? There're some people who want to meet us._

After a minute the bronze responded with simply _We come._

"They're on their way," Jess informed the others when Vailath relayed it to her. Sure enough, the young bronze dragon and his rider raced down from the same direction the others had taken.

"What's up? Ya gonna introduce us?" he asked Jess as he slid down the great dragon's shoulder.

"This is Masterharper Sebell and Mastersinger Menolly." She grinned at him, watching his expressions. First he gaped, bug-eyed, then recovered, blinking, and finally turned to her with a glare.

"You couldn't possibly have warned me?"

"Nope. Sorry." All of them knew she was completely unrepentant. "Anyway, they wanted to talk to us."

"About anything in particular?" he asked warily.

"Well," Menolly glanced at her mate, "we would like to know about Warth. What it's like-"

"Whoa! Chill a mo'!" He held up his hands then whirled on Jess and propped them on his hips. "_What_ did you tell them?"

"_Nothing_, O great _but_-head! They just _got_ here." She glared back just as fiercely as he did.

"You see, that is the kind of thing we mean. Your language is filled with words that we have no notion of their meaning."

"You get used to understanding about _half_ of what they say," Nairyry commented dryly.

"Sorry…"

000

The five of them, in spite of first misgivings, were soon laughing at some joke or other like old friends. When the sun began to sink Jess drew their attention to it and they sat, just enjoying the sight until the last rays were extinguished by a cloud.

Sebell sighed. "We should be getting back now," he told them regretfully, "but it has been a pleasure talking with the two of you."

"Totally cool with you guys too. Come back some time and we'll hang out. I still want to know how your adventure with the dolphins went, dude." Tristan and Jess shook hands and Sebel quirked an eyebrow at the boy's language.

"'Totally cool'? 'You guys'? 'Hang out'? 'Dude'?"

"Just… Never mind. Basic translation: it was fun with you also, come back and visit us again. Dude is just slang, for person, friend, whoever."

"Okay, _dude_. Whatever." He winked with a grin and the three other chuckled.

"You got a ride to catch, so go party on wi'ch yo bad selves-" she extended thumb, smallest finger and fore finger on both hands and held it up briefly "and we'll catch you on the flip side." To make a joke, Jess put on her best 'Gangsta' attitude and overdid everything extraordinarily.

All five burst out laughing.

000

"That was cool."

"Yeah."

That was about all Tristan could say. It _had_ been cool, talking with near-strangers about things they had carefully guarded against mentioning.

Both teenagers suddenly realized how nice it had been to let down their guard, and how homesick they suddenly were for people tow whom they could relate, who would use slang and know what 'dude' meant.

"'Catch you on the flip side'," Tristan quoted, then grinned and waved a hand briefly. He swung up his bronze's shoulder and Jess did the same with Vailath. The silver dragon easily caught up with her friend and they continued up the beach.

"Do you think we'll be allowed to fly with them soon?" asked Jess as she slid to the sands at the Weyrling barracks. "The dragons are near the end of their growth; Vailath and Kurith and the rest are flying very strongly. And I can't _wait_ for a decent saddle."

"Actually-" they spun around and nearly lost their balance. The Weyrlingmaster, S'kooen, held up his hands. "I apologize for startling you. But I wanted to address that particular issue. You are all ready to fly."

"Seriously?" cried Jess, delighted, bouncing up and down a little.

"Of course. We will start Threadfighting training immediately, beginning with flying tomorrow, and then we shall move on to _between_ing when you are all ready."

000

The next day the fifteen young men and woman were given the riding straps for their dragons and shown how to put it on if they were at all clumsy.

Vailath and Jess were to fly near the gold, Ashvuth, and her rider, Mayzol. Mayzol was an imperious girl, a Lord Holder's child, and always trying to be superior and pulling rank whenever possible. She struggled with her dragon's harness and Jess came over to assist her.

The girl, for all she was a foot shorter, not remarkably pretty nor clever, snapped at her for bothering to help. "Go tend to that pallid freak of yours, show-off."

Jess instead took the strap from her hands without a word and did it properly, making sure the girl saw how she did the fastening, and went to see how Tristan was managing.

She nearly giggled when she saw him, but managed to restrain herself to a small smile.

"You need some help?" His straps were completely tangled up.

"Yeah," he grunted, trying to turn the straps the right way.

She beckoned Vailath over and asked the silver dragon to get her up to untangle the straps. Vailath put her nose down and allowed Jess to sit there. Ever so carefully she maneuvered until Jess was able to free the straps.

"You might want to work on that in the future," she informed Tristan.

"Shoo," he told her firmly. She could see he was trying to cover up his embarrassment and let it go with a grin and a wave.

"Mount up, Riders!" called S'kooen from the neck of brown Jilpath in the air. As if with the ease of practice Tristan and Jess swung into their fighting straps, though the other Riders had to work at it. Mayzol took a good three minutes to get the proper swing up her dragon's shoulder to her neck. Ashvuth waited patiently, some others less so, but soon the Weyrlingmaster raised his fist in the traditional signal aloft.

Jess instinctively half-crouched down on the great silver neck of her dragon as they rocketed upwards. While they hovered, waiting for the others to join them at their swiftly-assumed altitude, she looked up to the clouds.

A sudden feeling of homesickness swept through her in this place that was so alike and yet so different from her home.


	4. Time Travelers

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Four: _Time Travelers_

Jilpath let loose a short bellow, then gave each dragon and rider the coordinates to go _between_ to a beach S'kooen knew of down the coast a little ways. The riders held the image firmly in their minds and braced themselves for the cold of _between_.

As they burst out the hot sun greeted them and seemed to commend their mastery of this new skill.

000

For the rest of the afternoon they jumped back and forth to different beaches and different places around the weyr. It was often impressed on them that they _could not_ –absolutely _could not_– jump without the guidance of a more experienced dragon and rider yet. But, the Weyrlingmaster encouraged them, they were going very fast and it would not be long before they could begin practicing Thread-fighting with the Wings.

At last, as the sun dipped towards the horizon, S'kooen passed along the message through Jilpath that they were to hunt the dragons, have their own dinner and be rested for tomorrow. The elderly man and dragon said that each Weyrling, because there were so few of them, was to get a turn giving coordinates to the small wing.

There was much talk over dinner as to where they were to go. Many young riders thought returning home astride a dragon would be best for them, but Jess didn't join in the conversation about their homes. She knew she would forever remain an outcast from them, both as a person, for her home must remain secret, and as Rider of the only silver dragon.

Tristan reviewed places he knew around Pern. He had wandered across some of the South, but not nearly as much as the others had. Most knew places in the North as well. At last he decided on a clearing in the forest not far from the Weyr. Most people were choosing destinations further abroad, so it was safe to assume the clearing was a non-repetitive visit.

000

The next morning, when all the Weyrlings were assembled and had put on the flying harness without error, S'kooen brought them aloft with the traditional signal. The Weyrlingmaster passed on, by way of his brown and then Preearth, a request that Bluerider F'nask be the first to pass on their coordinates.

F'nask gave first Jilpath the coordinates; when he and his rider approved them as accurate, they passed on the image to the fourteen waiting dragons and their riders. At S'kooen's signal they disappeared _between_.

They emerged over the destination, a point above Southern Hold. Jilpath and S'kooen went through the same process with brown Spayoth and D'gor, who brought them to a small hold which apparently bred runnerbeasts in the shadow of a great mountain.

When the next Weyrling selected, J'lepo, rider of green Hintuth, tried to give his coordinates, Jilpath and S'kooen found them not clear enough to risk transferring dragons and riders with. Instead he called on Greenrider Cazadamil and her Pleikath. Their coordinates were pronounced satisfactory and they leapt between.

Now they found themselves on a beach. Cazadamil, who preferred to be called Caza, explained that she had found the last two eggs not eaten by snakes in a clutch here. Indeed, a brown lizard was sitting on her shoulder while a blue was hovering by.

Mayzol interrupted. Clearly disgruntled by not going first because she rode gold, the girl had her Ashvuth tell all the dragons to go to her coordinates. Several of the riders, enjoying the scenery or not paying attention completely, were caught off-guard as their startled dragonsobeyed, pulling them _between_.

They were in the blackness of teleportation.

As they hung there, far longer than usual, Jess knew something was wrong. She knew they were lost. With direction and aid from her unusual silver dragon she and Tristan, the two humans Vailath knew best, frantically gathered the minds of all the dragons there. Somehow knowing instinctively that Tristan was doing the same callmed Jess and she was able to carefully grasp each thread of life Vailath showed her to grab. Just to get them out of the horrible blackness she clearly visualized the first thing to come into her head.

Dragging the rest of the dragons and their riders with them, Jess, Tristan and Vailath forced themselves there, not caring where it was as long as it was out of the horribly darkness of _between_.

000

They emerged above a clearing surrounded by a forest of strange trees but, too tired to care, the exhausted dragons landed all together in the open space.

After a moment, Jess recovered enough to realize they had to get out of here. _How _could_ I have been so _stupid_, Vailath? _she wailed telepathically to her dragon. _We could be found anytime!_ It occurred to her she did not know who had been suddenly dragged on their unexpected trip. She took stock of her companions, unsurprised to see both Tristan close by. The boy gave a weak smile.

"You prob'ly shouldn't have given us _these_ coordinates, you know."

"Oh, _jeez_, do I know," she groaned in reply. "The last thing we need is- how many of us _are_ there again?" Jess took a swift tally.

Green Joozith and her rider Pralosa, Shirath and N'soy of the same color. Bronze Gamrith's rider, C'nam, seemed particularly shaken, but Bluerider S'pilron was looking around with interest beside his Dizith and brown Siporath was ridged with shock, his rider P'jaz's as well as his own.

Two greens, two bronzes, one blue, one brown, one gold and the silver dragon. Eight total young dragons in Central Park and six riders alien to this world. "This is so much worse than last time," she whispered to herself.

"Mayzol!" Suddenly Bronzerider C'nam was on his feet, dashing to golden Ashvuth's side. The queenrider slide off unresponsively, apparently in a faint, and thudded onto the ground.

000

"All right! May I have everyone's attention please!" The talkative riders quieted slowly as Jess stood on Vailath's shoulder some minutes later to deliver her announcement. "Now here is the situation. Goldrider Mayzol has knocked herself unconscious and we are unable to revive her. Ashvuth is worried; so are we all. We cannot risk transferring her _between_ back to the Weyr just yet; this mean we are basically stranded here until we can get uh… supplies… which they use here for injuries such as these."

Tristan looped an arm about Kurith's bronze jaw and continued. "Jess and I know this place; we will bring supplies but for now it is imperative that no one flies or makes noise which may draw attention."

'Attention is certainly the last thing we need right now,' Jess thought. 'If the dragons aren't hauled off to be put in a zoo, they'll be stuck in a laboratory for study. That could kill their riders, _if_ we aren't arrested.'

000

After saying swift good-byes to their dragons, Jess and Tristan set out in a direction they thought most likely to bring them to a trail. If they had difficulty finding their way back they knew they could follow the voices of the dragons.

It was not long before they found one. Both teenagers gave a chuckle as they saw where they were. Though someone had cleared the toppled trees and brush, the clearing they had landed in had been originally made by Thyrath's undignified crash landing.

It was not late in the morning, she would have guessed about nine, when Tristan led the way out an exit that was only a few blocks away from his house. At the busy street he stopped, unused to the noise of the city after so many months away.

Something flashed through his mind. So long away… yes he had been away months by his calculations, but how long had he been gone here? At least long enough for the clearing to have been fixed up. It could be anywhere from a couple of weeks to twenty years.

"Jess?" Tristan turned to his friend. "How long have we been gone- in this time?" Her eyes widened and he could see she understood. "If I go charging into my house now, who's to say it's still my house? How much have people aged in this 'now'?" he asked rhetorically, not wanting an answer.

After a moment of blinking, Jess drew a deep, shaking breath. "That's a problem."

"Big problem," Tristan confirmed grimly.


	5. Dragonrescue

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Five: _Dragonrescue_

"Excuse me, sir? What's the date?" The businessman in a black tuxedo looked at his watch and hurriedly told her, obviously eager to be off again.

"September twenty-seventh; 9/27/05."

"Thank you," she told him as he stepped into the waiting taxi.

"It was August of '05, that we- hey!" he suddenly cried out as a man nearly knocked him down racing down the sidewalk. Other people jostled past, and they dodged into the park, out of the way of the sudden tide of people.

"What's going on?" asked Jess. Some people were running one way, some the other. Now she could hear a roar, and police sirens. An ambulance raced one way on the street, siren blaring. It was followed by fire engines and more ambulances.

"What happened?" Screams were issuing from the direction and above the buildings a plume of smoke was going up.

A woman hurrying towards the source of the disturbance stopped, panting. "You haven't heard?" She gaped at them. "There's a big fire, nearly as big as September Eleventh. Some kind of experiment with explosives went wrong, and half of downtown is burning or toppled. They need help- big time." The woman choked back a sob. "It would take a _dragon_ to save my son now!"

Jess and Tristan looked at each other, frozen in shock. Their fear was mirrored in each other's faces. The teenager reached out and took the other woman's hands. Her voice was soft and firm, the clear calm of total belief. "Then so the dragons shall."

Both Tristan and the strange woman stared at her, the woman clearly thinking they were crazy, Tristan unsure. He saw something in her eyes that made him nod sharply and race back the way he had come.

"D- dragons? Are you insane?" The woman pulled her hands away.

"No. What is your son's name? And yours?"

For a minute the woman said nothing, face unreadable.. "My- mine's Sarah Tyler. His is Jake."

A bugle burst from above them.

"I promise you this, Sarah Tyler," Jess told the distraught woman quietly as Vailath and Kurith landed behind her in a rush of cold air. "If there is _anything_ we, the dragonriders of Pern can do, you _will_ have Jake back."

Then she turned and leapt up her dragon's side. Behind her were all except Ashfuth and Mayzol.

"_Dragonriders!_" she cried to them. "The people of this place have a huge fire they cannot fight alone. None of us here may remember the day the Oldtimers stole Ramoth's queen egg, but we know the pain, anger and fear it caused."

"Now we can prevent that for many of there people– who were once _our_ people," continued Tristan as they hovered. "Save _all_ you can!"

The seven dragons roared in unison and beat their vast wings in sound not far from a drumbeat. They raced to get to their destination, but nothing could have prepared them for the scene of ruble, ruin and devastation.

Jess scanned the area frantically, looking for any way they could begin helping and proving they were allies in this time. Several bulldozers were attempting to lift a huge slab of concrete, clearly to get to the wounded and dead beneath. Knowing time was of the essence Jess took quick stock. Already green Joozith's rider, Pralosa, was setting two less-injured people on her dragon's neck, with a third, apparently seriously hurt, waiting to be carried in the small dragon's claws.

Brown Siporath and bronze Gamrith were carrying a piece of wood between them, obviously to transport the three casualties their riders, P'jaz and C'nam were moving carefully.

"Tristan, would you, Dizith and S'pilron and Kurith help those people move the hunk of concrete? S'pilron and Tristan nodded and the bronze and blue landed swiftly. Grasping the edges in their talons, the dragons began to heave the obstruction away. Jess requested through Valiath that Greenrider N'soy and his Shirath to check the inside of what was left standing of one tower _carefully_. The green was small enough to maneuver in the space, otherwise she would have taken Vailath to go there. N'soy nodded sharply and they swiftly lowered themselves inside.

Jess looked around for her own job spotted a party trying to budge a long bit of wood, likely a telephone pole, from a pile. From her vantage point in the air it was clear they needed to first remove a slab of concrete, but they likely couldn't see that at their position, nor were the other dragons as strong or large as hers. She and Vailath dove and the silver dragon heaved the monstrous piece away, then dragged the end of the telephone pole off the pile. A woman stumbled out clutching her arm, and pointed back in with her good one.

"He's in there, trapped I tried to shift the desk, but it's solid oak and- _oh_!" She cried out in shock when Jess and Vailath came up.

"We'll get- what's his name?"

"My partner, Jake Tyler." Jess nodded and urged her dragon into the gaping ditch as far as her bulk would allow. Sarah's son. It had to be him. It was a good thing, too; she didn't make promises lightly.

"Jake!" she called ahead. "Jake Tyler!" A groan answered her. She swung down Vailath's side and came around what appeared to be a large, ornate, solid-wood desk with a leg in jeans and an arm in dusty gray-brown sticking out from under it.

She raced around to the other side to take the young man's hand, surprised to see she was not that much younger than he. "Jake," she called softly. "Jake Tyler?"

His eyes fluttered open and he coughed. "My- my arm… my leg…" His voice broke in a stifled half-sob.

"Hang on. I'll get you out. Your mother, Sarah, sent me and my dragon to find you. It'll be fine." She turned to her dragon after giving him all the comfort she could. "A little help here?"

The great silver dragon reached out one claw and flipped the desk laboriously off the man pinned underneath. He cried out, then clenched his jaws. Vailath and her rider maneuvered him onto one of the dragon's claws, and she brought him gently out. Jess stumbled out behind and when they were free of the rubble climbed sorely up her friends shoulder.

"Let's get him to the medics," she suggested. Vailath hopped awkwardly into the air and beat her wings a few times until they could land beside an ambulance. Jess called down to the awestruck personnel his name, then turned her dragon to find others trapped. She heard Shirath, N'soy's green, call that they needed help to get their people out. There were too many for another trip and they would not leave.

Joozith and Pralosa, the other green and her rider, were willing to aid their friends. The small dragon disappeared into the remnants of the building. Someone screamed and pointed to flames. Jess and Vailath were instantly in the air, to land by the fire. A man, his right side smoldering in burns stumbled out screaming. Beside him limped a woman with huge bleeding gash in her side. Jess looked around and spotted two volunteer men climbing as swiftly as they could towards the injured pair.

"Get them over here! We'll fly them to the paramedics!" she yelled. The men, though obviously struck by the appearance of a savior on a silver dragon, complied and helped Jess hoist the injured up on her dragon's neck. Spotting another man stumbling along with what appeared to be a broken leg, she had her dragon seize him in her claws before gliding back to the ambulances.


	6. Peach Ice Cream

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Six: _Peach Ice Cream_

The seven dragons and their riders worked throughout the day to rescue the injured and free those trapped beneath the rubble. Vailath landed her four passengers after setting the makeshift wood stretcher with two others on it, then stumbled as she tried to turn away for more.

Jess held the flying straps, but leaned against her great friend. They were both exhausted. She looked around. Four other dragons were on the ground, stumbling with weariness. As the teen watched, Tristan and Kurith and brown Siporath with P'jaz glided to a jostling landing and set down a great piece of wood, likely formerly a great portion of a floor, with several forms on it. The brown and bronze let down their passengers, several each, and then turned away, but, like the others, were unable to go on.

"You should all rest." A hand was laid on Jess's shoulder, and she turned to see Sarah Tyler. "You have done so much more than we could have hoped, and the doctors say that since you saved my son and brought him out so quickly he will live whole. Had we been forced to wait for –normal means– he may have died."

"He is all right then?" Her voice sounded tired even to her.

"And it is all thanks to you. We have many thanks to you and your dragons. Without your and their aid, who know how many you have saved who would have died." Now the woman took on the role of a mother. "Come, you must rest. Your dragons have a place to stay where you found me? In Central Park?"

When Jess nodded wearily she continued. "I do not know if we can feed them, but at least their riders shall come with us for a decent meal and a long rest. You each did the work of twenty men today. And I think I can offer one more of you a place."

Unable to protest, Jess gave Vailath a rub on the nose_. Is it all right with you?_

_Go_, her dragon said. _We_ _shall _all_ rest, and we do not need to be fed for now._ Jess heard the other dragons give agreement. _We will guard Ashvuth's rider, and even bring her to you if absolutely need be._

She made a quick scan of the other riders. All were being offered places by grateful family members. As one the dragons rose into the sky, forming a 'V' with Vailath in the fore, and flew off in the direction of Central Park.

"Tristan?" she called. "Sarah says she can give us a place to stay and a good meal."

"Quite a few meals by the looks of it," the woman chuckled. "You need it. I know you would be most welcome with my husband." She brushed a lock of wispy light brown hair out of her face and tucked it behind an ear, smudging the dirt and dust on her face.

"Thank you," Jess told her. Tristan nodded as he came over.

"From me as well."

Sarah waved it away, her eyes brimming with tears through her smile. "I must thank all of _you_ again. You gave me back my son, and saved more people than I can count."

So softly that Sarah and Tristan had to strain to hear Jess whispered what she had been told many times, but only now knew in not just her head, but in her very heart and soul. "It is the duty of a dragonrider to help those who cannot aid themselves."

000

"Jake was there when the golden dragon leapt off the Empire State Building. He showed me what happened; he'd run out of a party he was at for a friend and grabbed his video recorder." Sarah might have simply made the comment innocently, having seen the dragons, but by the way she scrutinized them sharply the teens didn't think so. "He had a front row seat. Got several good close-ups…"

Tristan looked away at the buildings going slowly past out the taxi window and Jess felt her cheeks grow warm. "So it was you, then!" the woman said. "I thought it was, but I wasn't sure. What about the third woman? And where were your dragons?"

Jess hesitated, but decided to tell her the truth, if not all of it. "We didn't have our dragons then. Nairyry was the other; Thyrath was her gold dragon. After we went to Pern, that's when we got our dragons." She neglected to mention that the others were from Pern. Just in case the others might be indiscrete, she called, through her dragon, to their dragons and requested that they remind their riders to be cautious about what they said, and to simply pass over the dragons' teleportation abilities.

000

Sarah brought them to her home, a small brick house with a great old apple tree in the front yard. The fruit was ripe and after Sarah paid their driver she told her guests to pick a few, and she did the same. Her visitors did so, then followed her inside. It was not poorly furnished, but neither was it gaudy or clearly expensive. The first hall had several doors opening off it, and their host led them through one of these into a kitchen.

Jess smiled as she saw the old-fashioned, curtained windows, a flower box on the outside. She and Tristan each set two apples in the sink after Sarah, who washed them all and then, setting the others in a fruit bowl, began to slice one for them.

"Dinner'll be ready in a jiffy and we'll eat as soon as Carl gets back. He stayed with Jake at the hospital for a while after I came back to get you." She slid the pieces into a translucent blue glass bowl and set it on the counter. "I'll just call them… sit down for a bit, eat some."

Sarah dialed something quickly on a black cordless phone, then pinned it against her ear with her shoulder as she bustled around and set out some crackers and humus dip. "Hello? It's me. Yeah, I'm fine. Jessica and Tristan. We'll discuss that later. Uh hunh. He's fine though? Take care, Carl. You too. See you soon."

She pressed a button and placed the phone back on its hook. "He's on his way; Jake's asleep and the doctor says he can come home in a couple of days. Carl should be here in a few minutes. He had to walk, he says. Couldn't find a taxi."

"He'll be all right then?" Jess sighed. "I wish I could say the same for others. Some we brought out of there, they'll be scarred for life."

"Jake's got a broken leg and a sprained wrist, but he'll recover just fine." There was a tremor in her voice as she sat at the table. "Thank you, again, so very much," she told Jess, eyes brimming again.

"Like I said, it was our duty, Tristan's and mine, as former citizens here. And all dragonriders, as dragonriders, to all people. No matter who."

000

After some minutes of silent thoughts the front door opened and a man put down a briefcase by the door. Sarah came out to him and Tristan took the opportunity to whisper to Jess.

"You know that as soon as Mayzol wakes up we have to go."

"I know." Jess took another slice of apple and bit into it. True, Southern Pernese Redfruit was delicious, but there was nothing for her that could rival a good crisp apple fresh off the tree.

"We can't stay; the dragons need to get home and so do the other riders."

"Carl, this is Tristan and Jessica. Jess was the rider of the silver dragon who unburied Jake, and Tristan got the Mrs. Sampson's cousin out of what was left standing." The adults had come back in.

"It's so good to meet you," the man said with feeling, shaking Jess's and then Tristan's hands.

"Nice to meet you too."

"Same here."

Sarah had apparently put a lasagna in the oven before picking up Jess and Tristan, for she pulled it out of the oven with a pair of oven mitts and told her husband to get the table settings.

"We'll help; just tell us where to get things." Jess got out the glasses as directed by Sarah, and Tristan laid out placemats and silverware. Carl put out the plates and napkins and Sarah put out her lasagna on a large coaster and pulled out a finished salad in a large wood bowl. To finish it off Jess cut up another apple and Sarah pulled out salad dressings.

They ate in a comfortable silence until the last plates were scraped clean. Then Carl got up. "Picked up something today just before we heard of… the accident. Forgot to mention it." Out of the freezer he took a tin can. "Mr. Thompson was making up fresh, homemade ice cream from that big old peach tree of his and had plenty of cans that wouldn't fit."

He opened the top and took down four bowls from a cupboard, then four spoons and a scooper and served out generous portions to each. "Fresh, homemade peach ice cream?" Jess slowly took a small spoonful and tasted it. She didn't think ice cream could taste so pure and good.

000

They each took showers, rinsing off the grime of their rescue efforts, and were given spare sets of pajamas when they were done. Tristan was set up on the fold-out sofa bed in the living room and Jess was shown the guest bedroom. Jess sat up in the comfortable bed for several minutes.

She drifted, not speaking to her dragon but simply feeling her presence. Eventually she lay back.

So far, so good, she thought, and smiled to herself as she drifted to sleep.


	7. Timing Issues Again

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Seven: _Timing Issues Again_

Jess and Tristan waved a last goodbye to Carl and Sarah Tyler before walking quickly into Central Park. Vailath and Kurith greeted their riders with bugles. Already most of the other riders were there. "Only missing… C'nam and Pralosa." The green was sitting, waiting patiently for her rider, while Gamrith paced back and forth across the clearing. Joozith closed her eyes and lay back down, tucking her wings more tightly against her sides.

_She wakes!_

"Ashvuth?" Jess turned as the queen caroled her delight. "Mayzol?" She crouched at the goldrider's side. "Are you all right? You didn't wake for all of yesterday and today!"

"Mm? I'm fine… just a little hungry. What happened? Did we get to Benden?"

"No, the coordinates were off. We got landed on _earth_." C'nam came out of the bushes and scowled down at her.

"What?" She was plainly confused and disoriented. Jess sighed and rolled her eyes.

"Never mind; we're going back now that you're fine. We weren't sure if you and Ashvuth would come out if we took you _between_ unconscious." Tristan turned to the rest of the riders.

"We can go as soon as Pralosa gets here."

"Go?" asked a small, querulous voice. Jess looked up sharply. Hiding behind a tree was a young boy of about eight.

"Hello, there," she said, straightening up slowly. The boy edged around the tree.

"Hi." He kept glancing at the dragons and back to Jess. "I'm David," he said abruptly.

"My name's Jess. What are you doing here? Aren't your parents worried?"

"Dad fell off the building when it caught fire." His face was stony. "Mum was bringing him his lunch; he forgot it this morning. She's in the hospital, I think, if they saved her. She got a big cut."

David pointed at Dizith and S'pilron. "They saved her. Almost. They brought her out." Suddenly shy, he glanced once more at the blue dragon and then down at the ground.

Speechless, Jess turned to Tristan. "He's got no where to go, then." Tristan glanced between her and the boy, wanting to say no but unable to deny the child's plight. At last he took a deep breath and let it out.

"Pralosa's here. We should be going home. Every one of us."

Jess swallowed and turned to the boy. "David? Do you know if your mother is going to be all right?"

He looked at her, head slightly to the side. "You're old. You're supposed to reassure _me_." His frankness seemed to be the last of his resolve and tears began to run down his face. "I dunno," he told her.

Jess sat and hugged the boy, so alone and frightened. "Hey, it'll be fine," she told him softly. "Now I'm going to bring you with us, all right? So you'll be safe. We'll come back to check, though, to see if your mother is all right. But we're leaving and we'd bring you if you want to come."

"Really?" For a moment he nearly stopped crying. "With Dizith?"

"How did you know his name?" asked Tristan from above them. Jess met his eyes, just as startled.

"He says so. I like him. I like all of them." He sniffed. "They say I should come, so I guess I should."

"Oh, no," groaned Tristan, leaning back against Kurith's side with his eyes closed. The bronze lowered his head and nudged the boy, who grinned and patted the great muzzle.

"Don't tell me." Jess's voice was dry as she got to her feet. "He'll be a good candidate."

_He will._

"Lovely," she grumbled, helping David up. "Just splendid. If dragonriders find any more future Weyrlings back in time I'll shove _between_ and stick there."

S'pilron said that David could ride with him, and helped the little boy up the blue's shoulder to sit in front of him. Because of the minimal amounts of air space they had decided to take off in two groups. The first was lead by Tristan and Kurith, while the second group stayed as far back as the edge of the clearing would allow to give them plenty of wing room.

Green Joozith, Dizith with S'pilron and an exuberant David and brown Siporath spread their wings. At Tristan's signal they rose into the air. Green Shirath, bronze Gamrith and Ashvuth with still-disoriented Mayzol aboard took their signal from Jess and Vailath.

All the dragons rumbled as they formed into wings, all the while rising to safe levels to go _between_ at.

For the brief moment they hovered there Jess looked around at New York, the buildings and the trees of Central Park. No, this wasn't her home, with the technology and all the destruction it entitled. Not anymore. Not after she had seen the dragons, had seen Pern and all it was and had been and could be.

_Pern_ was her home now, with the clear seas, the great dragons and little fire lizards, and the many people she had come to know and love. She knew in her heart that she would never come back to Earth.

"All right, Vailath, let's go… _home_."

She gave all dragons and their riders the coordinates.

The eight dragons disappeared _between_, trusting Jess and Tristan, with Vailath and Kurith's aid, would guide them safely home through time and space.

000

If the people they arrived over were surprised, it was nothing compared to the shock the eight riders and their dragons experienced.

"No," moaned Jess, closing her eyes. She opened them again but the image remained the same beneath the small wing of dragons.

_We have gotten the coordinates wrong,_ commented Vailath unnecessarily.

"Tell me something I didn't know," her rider muttered.

_Tristan says we should land. He wants to see what they want from us._ Indeed, the strange people were beckoning them down, nearly fanticaly.

"He would."

"Tell the rest of us to land further down the beach. You, me Tristan and Kurith will land and talk to them."

The six other Weyrlings settled to the ground and the bronze and silver came just far enough to courteously keep the small sand flurries out of the faces of the small group of people. Three approached them, two men and a young woman.

"Jays, they are dragons. Just like the dragon_et_s, but bigger! And whereinell did that silver one come from?" The younger of the two men stared in admiration and wonder at the great dragon.

"Vailath's… special." commented Jess with a slight grimace.

"Just a moment." Tristan frowned. "This… is Pern, right?" They nodded. "Then why have you no dragons? And… '_dragonets'_?"

"Yeah, like Wildfire, here." The young man stroked the bronze lizard on his shoulder, producing a croon from the little creature.

"Fire lizards? No dragons?" Tristan looked at Jess.

She coughed to cover a laugh. "Like last time _between_, only not back... _former_ home; here."

His eyes went wide. "Oh..."

She shook her head condescendingly. "I swear, you bronze riders..." Then she smiled a little quirkily. "Not that Goldriders can't be _just_ as bad."

"Tell me about it," he muttered, then turned his attention back to the three representatives. "But no dragons?"

They shook their heads mutely.

"No Thread either?" he asked hopefully. "No scorings from it?"

"Thread?" The young woman sounded puzzled. "Nothing by that name."

"It might be early enough so that they haven't named it," his friend reminded him.

"That early? Dang!" He whistled appreciatively.

"Thread- um, silver, long stringy things that fall out of the sky. And sort of…" She trailed off, unwilling to say what devastation Thread wreaked.

"Eats pretty much everything," finished Tristan grimly. The group tensed. "Like _us_," he gestured to the wing, "if we don't dodge or flame it."

"Nothing like that here at Landing," the older of the two men said.

"Landing!" Just like in a movie, Tristan and Jess spoke as one.

"That's what we seem to be calling it. Now all the colonists are settled we're spreading out, so we can't exactly call it our city or anything, but we landed here, and we're here to stay on Pern." This last the older man said nearly defensively.

"Yes," commented Tristan sourly. "We know. Oh, boy, do we know."

"Shshsh…!" Jess cautioned, trying not to laugh. "Anyway, we wouldn't even _think_ of asking you to move on, even if it were possible to."

"Anyway, where'd you come from?" the young woman asked suspiciously. "And who _are_ you exactly?"

"Tristan, and this's Jess. We-"

He stopped short. He'd been about to say we won't be staying long, but the dragons had as one turned to look at the horizon. A mass of clouds was billowing there, gray and ominous.

"Oh, no," he whispered.

"What? A storm?" The young woman shielded her eyes from the sun and looked in the direction all eight riders and dragons were looking.

"Not exactly." Jess's voice was grim. "Have you any flame-throwers?"

"Yes, we use them for clearing the ground, but-"

"Would you please get two? Immediately? One for me, one for Mayzol?" The younger man looked about to argue, then called back to the larger group, watching at a safe distance. "Someone get two flame-throwers! Fast!"

"Tristan, you and the others go collect as much firestone as you can. Have you bags also we could use? Just for this Fall?"

"Fall? Yes, but what's Fall, when it's high summer?" He called out a request for twelve large sacks.

"Threadfall." Jess closed her eyes for a moment before repeating the old rhyme about dragonriders all flying when thread was in the sky. Then her eyes snapped open. Within an instant she went from an unsure teenager confronted by strangers in a strange time and place to a leader who gave orders in such away as there was no question they would be obeyed.

"Get lots of numbweed, or whatever you use on open wounds ready. There's not enough of us to make a huge difference, so we'll concentrate on the parts we need to save most. Riders!" she called to her six allies, "Threadfall approaches. Guard the settlement, help as much as you can! Make every flame count!"

"You know," commented Tristan, pausing as he was about to mount Kurith and go in search of a generous supply of firestone, "we always seem to show up when disasters are about to happen."

"_Tell_ me about it," she muttered, smearing a hand down her face in an exasperated motion. A man handed her the flamethrower and she nodded her thanks before dashing back to Vailath and climbing the great silver dragon's shoulder.

"If you have any fire lizards, dragonets, tell them to help us," she called. "By the Egg, I think we're gonna need it."


	8. Threadfall

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Eight: _Threadfall_

The fire lizards proved to be a great help; they came in huge fairs, and guided the time-traveling dragonriders to a large stock of firestone. Jess and Mayzol organized several groups of people to be ready with flamethrowers near their homes.

"Fire sears it to char and it drowns in water, so the ocean's not going to be harmed," explained Jess. "get everyone you can call to get under _non-organic _shelter and try to get their lizards, dragonets, to call wild ones to help protect them. Could you- I never did get your names, did I?"

The younger two of the three traded amused glances. The older man lifted his chin ever so slightly, clearly not thinking they would not know him. "I'm Sallah Telgar, this is Scott Nelson."

"Paul Benden."

Jess froze, eyes going wide. Then she mastered herself and shook hands with the Admiral who had brought them all this far. "I'm sorry, I never thought… but if it's the first charted Fall, then you would… yes…"

She shook hands with the pilot. "Telgar… Benden… After all the years, still to be… still to _see_…" The three sensed she was not talking to them. "Two thousand, five hundred years, and still known…" She rested her gaze on Sallah Telgar for a long moment, wishing to tell her what was to come, knowing she could not.

Dashing unexpected tears from her eyes she turned away to remount her dragon. "Thread will be here soon. We'll do our best, but people who're out…"

"Sorka and Sean," said Sallah suddenly. "They're…?" She looked up at Jess.

"They'll be fine. They were, so they are, and will be." She sighed. "That made no sense, but it will when… never mind. Time's all screwy right now for us all."

Vailath lifted her into the air. Already the six fire-breathing fighting dragons were chewing their stone, and Mayzol was carefully checking her firethrower from gold Ashvuth's neck.

Briefly Jess wondered that all the people had been so cooperative with a stranger. _You acted as if they would obey, and they did. You are a leader, and they knew. They also knew_ me.

_But dragons don't harm people,_ she protested.

They _do not know that,_ said Vailath smugly.

_You're getting cleverer by the hour, I swear,_ an amused Jess replied.

_It comes!_ Kurith bellowed his challenge and the others took up the call. Thread fell and the dragons charged, fire lizards of all colors, tame and wild, darting around to help. With so many to aid them, Jess and Tristan agreed the dragons should go further abroad, to save more. _But always in pairs or threes,_ they cautioned.

Jess and Tristan guided their dragons to the side. A flying machine was pulling beside the tower. They dove and flamed the Thread above the man who raced from the machine to the tower.

As soon as he was safe they patrolled, flaming anything the fire lizards were not getting, over closer to the forest. _Look!_ Sharp-eyed Vailath drew their attention to a form on horseback, three lizards flaming desperately at the Thread that fell near him.

The silver and bronze dove to the person's aid, charring a huge clump of the terrible organism into dust. The beast was clearly winded though, near exhaustion. Without warning Vailath dove with incredible speed and snatched both horse and rider from the ground. She skimmed low, the terrified equine floundering in her talons, and deposited both just outside the stables.

"Go!" Jess screamed. "Get inside!"

The boy and his dark brown mare did as they were told, or perhaps were frightened inside by the vast silver dragon. Either way, Jess sighed, knowing they, at least, were safe.

000

Threadfall was over. Vailath had a minor scoring down her hind leg, green Joozith had taken a bad laceration on her wing and the Bluerider of Dizith, S'pilron, had some burns on his cheek. Joozith would not be flying for several days. Once again, they were stranded between times, and would not leave one of their number, despite Pralosa's request that they move on without her and her green.

"We started this all together, and all of us will come out of it together," Jess told her firmly. "_Together_."

000

Later she wondered briefly out loud why there were so few casualties. Tristan said that he thought the fire lizards had taken out a lot of the Thread and they had just been flaming what the little creatures missed.

David had been left in the care of Mari Hanrahan. As soon as she had seen to all the injured dragonriders Jess asked Vailath to stay put, letting the medical personnel work on her leg scoring, and went to check on their little friend.

She found two other people walking towards the front door, a young man and a young woman, about her own age. The young man had a queen on his shoulder, the young woman a bronze. A fair of chattering fire lizards were settling on the roof. Jess reached the house first, just a little ahead of the others.

"I'm here to see David? I asked Mari to watch him,"

The two traded looks. "We just got back from barely escaping that rain stuff, so we're not exactly on top of the most current events here." She held out her hand and Jess took it. "I'm Mari's daughter, Sorka Hanrahan. This is Sean Connel."

Jess was in a daze as she shook hands with the first dragonriders. "Shells," she whispered. "You really are?" The two again traded looks, reminding her of herself and Tristan sometimes.

"Yeah…? Did I forget to do something…?" Sean, soon-to-be rider of bronze Carenath and then first Weyrleader of the first Weyr, Fort, looked quite confused.

"Never mind. You'll- you'll find out when… Never mind. Just forget it. It'll still be a while, anyway." This last Jess muttered to herself.

Sorka reached past her and opened the door. "You're back!" It was Mari's voice.

"Safe and sound, mother, me and Sean both. Cricket and Doozer got some claw marks from the dragonet talons, but we bandaged them up. The dragonets-"

"Fire lizards," Sean wearily corrected in and undertone, making Jess grin as he ushered her inside before him and closed the door.

"-saved us. They made us get under a ledge in the water, us and the horses. Then they _flamed_ the silvery stuff away from us. It was spectacular!" Sorka looked out the window. "Did it even _get_ as far as Landing?"

Mari Hanrahan grinned and gestured to Jess. "It was mostly this lady's doing. She came flying in on that huge _silver_ _dragon_, like the dragonets only bigger, and starts giving out orders to get all the people and animals under shelter, and get flamethrower people ready to catch whatever she and her folk miss, and heed whatever the dragonets, fire lizards, she calls 'em, like you, Sean, want us to do."

Jess began a thorough examination of the floor.

Oblivious to the silver rider's embarrassment, Mari continued. "Then six others, normal colors, this time, no offense, with riders, come in with full bags of some stone that _stinks_ like week-old fish on a beach. And then, as queenly a lady of a dragons as I ever saw and gold all over, comes." Smiling slightly at the explanation of firestone stench Jess continued to go over the floor, square centimeter by square centimeter.

"Her rider climbs down and all the riders climb down, and they talk, and then all go and get on their beasties and fly up into the sky, all eight of 'em. And all but the silver and gold start popping this rock in the dragon's mouths, best as I could see, and then they flamed the silver stuff –they call it 'Thread'– to char, and it doesn't to any damage. They do this the whole time, with the fire lizards flaming with 'em. Don't know what we would've done if you hadn't come." This last was directed with relief and gratitude at Jess.

No one spoke for a moment; Mari beamed at Jess, Jess tried to hide her blush, Sean and Sorka looked between them.

At last Sean cleared his throat, but didn't say anything.

"Silver, huh? A silver dragon, like an overgrown dragonet."

"Fire lizards," Jess and Sean corrected at the same time. Jess tried not to grin at the young man, who was staring at her in confusion, amusement and wonder.

"Well, that's what we call 'em, any way. Back home." In jest she thought, or _forward_ home would also be accurate. "But I came to see David. I need to tell him something."

Mari brought her a room where four children, ages of about six to eight or nine, were playing around something. As they moved, muffling giggles, Jess could see David sitting in the middle with his back to her, holding something in his arms.

She came up behind the children and looked over the tops of their heads. David was cradling a brown fire lizard in his arms, stroking the soft hide of its stomach as it crooned in delight. The little boy turned around, grinning up at her. "Vailath asked him to come here. He did, and I asked him to play with us. He likes me."

"Vailath?" asked Mari from the door.

"My dragon," said Jess apologetically. "David, he's able to speak to the dragons and fire lizards. You two probably can, too, once you know them." She gestured at Sean and Sorka, who were looking wide eyed at the little boy holding a wild fire lizard as if he had Impressed it.

"We can?"

"Try! Here, I'll get you in touch." _Vailath! There're two people who'll be trying to contact you, but they haven't ever spoken to dragons before so you'll have to guide them a little._

_I hear them searching… I found them!_

"Jays!"

"It talks! Like us but not in words in my _ears_…"

The two turned to Jess, staring at her. "She says her name is Vailath. And that you're her rider."

Jess nodded, trying not to grin or burst out laughing. Here she was, the rider of a dragon so far in the distant future, originally from so far in the distant past, teaching the most famous Riders in Pern's history to speak to her silver dragon!

All three of them chuckled as Vailath informed them, not privately so that Jess heard too, that they should stop staring at her when she only there telepathically. Neither of them entirely understood, but that was besides the point.

"You'll get the hang of it," Jess said. "Faranth," she whispered to her herself, turning to look out the window. "Carenath? Will they remember me when you find them? Is that why, and will be, the reason you crack for them and them alone?"

The only one who heard her, David, kept silent.


	9. Bonds Across Time and Two Worlds

_Disclaimer_: I don't own Pern. I do, however own most of the characters in this story.

Chapter Nine: _Bonds Across Time and Two Worlds_

A little later Jess sat in the window seat of Mari's house, looking outside. "Was it all right?" David asked suddenly. "That we came here? I didn't really mean to, but we saved lots of people."

"What?" The silver rider looked at him, puzzled. "Didn't mean to what?"

"I didn't mean to bring us here. I'm sorry, but we did save them." The little boy sniffed and rubbed away the tears starting in his eyes.

"_You_ brought us here? How?"

"I heard Chocolate," he said, using the name he had given his brown fire lizard. "His person wasn't there any more, and he wanted someone. I wanted to be his friend, so Dizith and me went here, and brought you all. I didn't mean to, though. I'm sorry."

"Oh," Jess said, putting it all together. Then she slid out of the window seat and onto the floor to give the little boy a hug. "It's all right, David. I don't blame you." She hesitated, but had to know. "Do you want to stay here? With him? If you do, you could see more dragons later. I promise, even if it'll still be a few years."

"I don't know… Maybe," he said.

"Why don't you do that?" she asked.

"I'll take care of him," Mari said from the doorway. "Goodness knows I've missed having a little one of my own, even if I'm hip-deep with other's children.

So it was decided.

000

The riders from the future spent most of that time recovering from the effects of being all around time and on two worlds for some days. They oiled the dragon's hides and spent a lot of time just thinking and flying.

Jess and Tristan went down to the coast to go swimming with their friends the day after the first Threadfall witnessed by humans on Pern. Vailath and Kurith splashed, trumpeted and cavorted in the water, sending waves high up the beach.

"I think this time we should go directly back to the Weyr. A dragon can always find her own Weyr."

Tristan nodded, then draped an arm around her shoulders. She leaned her head on his shoulder.

"Been a while since we had time to relax," she murmured absently.

"This I know," he said with feeling, and they both chuckled.

Too soon they had to find a sleeping place for the night. Neither wanted to return to Landing, so they fell asleep on the beach.

000

The next day Pralosa and Jess checked the bandages on Joozith's wing. "She'll fly today, I think. Tomorrow at the latest." The green dragon trumpeted shortly, and flapped her wing experimentally. "Today, I take it," amended Jess dryly.

_I am ready. I will fly you anywhere!_ The green stooped her head to look into her rider's eyes.

"I know you will."

Jess suggested that they try dropping into flight from a ridge. She and Vailath supervised, though they knew it would be a strain to lift the green up before she fell if her wing proved fatally.

_I am whole. I will fly again._ The dragon's reassurance was emphatic.

_All right then, tell Pralosa to hold on!_

The green dropped off the cliff and beat her wings, pumping herself into the sky.

_Flight!_ she called.

_I see, friend!_ replied Vailath, she and her Rider smiling. _And we can go _home_ tomorrow! _exulted Vailath with a roar that echoed across the forests.

_Yes,_ agreed Jess. _Tomorrow we are going back to the Weyr. _'For _real_, this time, I hope,' she thought.

000

The riders bid farewell to the people they had come to know and care for in the three days they were stuck there. At last, five dragons were aloft, with only Jess, Tristan and Mayzol on the ground. Mayzol was saying her goodbyes to a young man, and then she remounted Ashvuth and the golden dragon arched into the sky.

Jess and Tristan just stood, looking at Paul Benden, Sallah Telgar and Scott Nelson. "Well, I can't say 'see you around', because that isn't true," she tried to joke.

Sallah smiled faintly. At last they simply clasped hands. They knew they would never see each other again.

As she and Tristan turned to take their places, Jess was overwhelmed by the desire to keep this kind, good woman alive. "Sallah…" she said, turning back. "Do _not_ _ever_ make the mistake of following Avril Bitra. No mater _what_ she is up to."

Then she turned and dashed past Tristan up Vailath's shoulder. The silver and bronze lifted skyward. Below they could see Sean and Sorka, and their fair of fire lizards, or dragonets as they were still popularly called.

_Farewell, Sorka, rider of Faranth the Golden, and farewell Sean, rider of bronze Carenath, first Weyrleader and Weyrwoman of Fort Weyr. Farewell from the past, and the present, and the future,_ Jess thought.

She never knew that her silver Vailath heard, and relayed her words to them.

All eight dragons and riders were still for a moment, perhaps saying private farewells courtesy of their dragons, perhaps simply overcome with relief at their departure, perhaps saddened at leaving their ancestors who would never know who their unusual visitors were.

At last Tristan sat up and gave the order for them to go _between_ back to Nais Weyr, nearly two thousand, five hundred and forty turns ahead.

And they reached across time once more to touch the minds and hearts of those they left behind.

000

In perfect order, to the astonishment of all, the wing of Weyrlings arranged themselves over Nais Weyr. Two greens, two bronzes, two blues, a brown, a gold and the only silver dragon of Pern all landed on the beach. Their clutchmates trumpeted and the reunited siblings cavorted in a display of their love.

The riders who had been through so much together stayed in a huddle, facing those who had not been with them. And so they returned to their rightful places on Pern.

"Where have you been?" cried Nairyry, rider of golden Thyrath as she came charging down the beach to greet them. "We couldn't find you anywhere!"

"We know," stated Jess simply.

Later the eight spoke to the Weyrleaders and the Weyrlingmaster. They did not claim either fault or leadership, but it was clear they all followed Jess and Tristan. The Weyrleaders and Weyrlingmaster were not told their entire story, but they knew it was not all, and knew only time would bring the full truth out. By unspoken agreement, the eight never told of anything past being dragged back to their Weyr after Mayzol's attempt at control.

They spoke without placing or accepting total blame or responsibility. None of the other dragonriders besides the eight ever figured out just what had come to change them so, to speak and act as adults, with more wisdom than they had a right to have at so young an age.

Anyone with eyes could see that they were not the Weyrlings they had been. Something bonded them, firmer than the bond of a queen to her chosen bronze, subtler than a breeze over the ocean, as yet somehow as obvious as a green ready to fly.

It was made through life-threatening danger, self-sacrifice, and self-effacing heroics.

It contained love for each other and each other's dragons, and loyalty through the thick and thin.

The eight dragons and riders shared something far more than mere friendship, love, trust or loyalty, though. They would never forget that they had held each other's lives in their hands, and had been held by other hands.

And though the years turn in countless rhymes, they never forgot each other or all they alone had shared together, across time and two worlds. Very few would ever know the truth of what they had accomplished or what had passed between them in the time they were gone, but that was all right with them.

_They_ knew, and for them, it was enough.


End file.
